The Tories were positively crowing last year about tearing up rules forcing all Jobcentre vacancies in the UK to be advertised across the EU. Esther McVey even had a good boast about standing up to Brussels:

“We are giving businesses the choice of advertising their jobs only to British residents – it’s only right that they get that choice.”

Why, then, did Conservative MEPs yesterday vote for the exact opposite: compulsory advertising of British jobs across Europe?

Tory MEP Anthea McIntyre put down an amendment – which was passed – calling for:

“All job vacancies made publicly available should be published on the EURES [EU-wide job advertising] portal, in accordance with the Member State’s own practice”

Despite the promise of a “deal”, a further amendment allowing “employers [to] choose not to have a vacancy published on the EURES portal” was voted down.

Naturally UKIP are kicking off. Not the best time for the Tories to be breaking promises on Europe…

UPDATE: DWP claim Guido has the wrong end of the stick…

“We are giving British people the chance to be first in line for jobs advertised in this country, and giving British businesses the choice to advertise only to British residents – it is only right that we offer them both this opportunity. These new rules will significantly reduce the number of British jobs advertised in Europe and put British residents first – and we will continue work with countries across Europe to ensure the system remains fair to jobseekers and to businesses.”

Background:

• In December the UK government negotiated a concession on the EURES regulations that meant British people were given the chance by employers to be first in line for jobs advertised in this country.
• This has been in effect for the UK since December and has significantly decreased the number of vacancies advertised across the EU.
• Yesterday a ‘compromise text’ (negotiated between MEPs) was presented to the Employment Committee in the European Parliament. This included an exemption allowing employers the choice not to advertise their jobs on EURES. This was voted on and passed.
• Anthea McIntyre’s amendment specified the same exemption as a formality and was voted down because the principle behind the amendment was already included in the compromise text.
• The UK government’s position remains the same – that employers should be able to advertise their vacancies only to people living in Britain. This position was strengthened by the vote yesterday.

Over to you UKIP…